Following Dylan Weil’s shifts at a local pizza shop, he and Brittany Raine used to hand out leftover pizza to unhoused young adults in downtown Eugene and ask what services the community was missing. The two wanted to create a service to help young adults without housing after they moved to Eugene. Many of the young adults told Raine and Weil that they needed safe places, more resources and healthier food, so that’s what Raine and Weil tried to provide.
In 2017, Weil and Raine created Community Outreach through Radical Empowerment, a nonprofit that provides unhoused and at-risk young adults with healthy meals, survival and harm reduction supplies and case management.
Today, CORE continues to offer healthy, homemade meals to people ages 16 to 24 and programs for people below 30 years old who are unhoused or at risk, using a model that encourages young people to pursue their own goals.
“CORE really exists to serve the people who don’t necessarily fit in with those other programs or need a low-barrier service,” Weil said.
CORE’s community partners — including farms and restaurants — donate ingredients, which CORE’s staff turns into healthy meals with meat and vegan options, Weil said. CORE serves the meals at its street feeds held at Party Downtown or at New Roads/Looking Glass on West 7th Ave. three times a month.
“Anyone can cook pasta and burritos or whatever, but we really steer away from those sorts of things and serve more thoughtful meals,” Weil said.
The young adults can also access survival supplies at the street feeds, including blankets, hand warmers and hand sanitizer, Weil said.
CORE’s harm reduction distribution services program provides supplies, including clean needles, safer smoking tools, condoms, herbal medicine and naloxone — a medicine used to reverse opioid overdose — Raine said. CORE provides educational materials on how to use harm reduction supplies.
Staff also speak with people sleeping outside for CORE’s street outreach program and try to engage people typically not involved in services, Raine said.
CORE seeks to eliminate the power dynamic of traditional nonprofits by adopting an empowerment model, Raine said.
“I was unhoused as a young person and fell through the cracks of the system,” Raine said. “The goal of CORE is to empower young people to get their goals and lift them up.”
CORE provides unhoused or at-risk young adults with case management, helping them navigate services to achieve their goals. Raine said CORE puts young adults “in the driver’s seat” by asking them what their goals are instead of telling them.
“We acknowledge that you’re the expert in your life,” Raine said. “We’re there kind of as much or as little as somebody wants us to be.”
Megan Walker, CORE’s local board president, said CORE’s unique approach would have been useful for her as a young person.
“They kind of do it backwards,” Walker said. “They’re checking in and seeing what is useful and then building a program around that.”
Weil said CORE is looking to open its own permanent space and create new programs and workshops based on what young adults say they need.
CORE will hold a street feed at Party Downtown from 5-7 p.m. on Oct. 18 and two pop ups with harm reduction supplies on Oct. 26 from 12-2 p.m. at Bohemia Park and on Oct. 28 from 4-6 p.m. at Monroe Park.
CORE’s events are limited to staff and people using their services, Weil said. To volunteer or learn more, visit coreeugene.org or @core.eugene on Instagram.
